Kingswood Oxford School is a private school located in West Hartford, Connecticut instructing day students in grades 6 through 12 with a college preparatory curriculum. Originally two separate schools, Kingswood School and Oxford School for boys and girls respectively, KO is now a co-educational institution. KO employs 75 teachers as well as administrative, library, building and grounds, and culinary staff.

History

Kingswood Oxford School was formed by the merger of two independent schools: Oxford School for girls, founded in 1909 by Mary Martin, and Kingswood School, founded by George R.H. Nicholson in 1916. Martin and Nicholson founded their schools on the premise that "wise parents know they must share with teachers the shaping of the minds and character of young people" as first expressed by The American Country Day School Journal in the early 1900s.

Academics

KO students continually score well on Advanced Placement exams; the school is one of the top achievers on AP tests among Connecticut high schools. The school has also been voted the best prep school in the West Hartford area for the ninth consecutive time in the May 2017 edition of the Hartford Courant. Kingswood Oxford students also continually score well within the National Merit Scholarship Program

Extracurricular activities

Student groups at KO range from a newspaper (the KO News), a literary magazine called epic and a student-run yearbook to multicultural and community-service organizations. KO's debate and public speaking club, the Forensic Union, has been consistently winning tournaments in the Debating Association of New England Independent Schools for over twenty years and has placed highly in international competitions including the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship.

Notable alumni & faculty